Dim The Light
by pinkwolf1620
Summary: Based on the Season 3 promo. Oliver wants to work alone again, Digg has his new family to worry about but Felicity, his light and love, will be harder to persuade. Oliver will have to do the Unthinkable again and dim her light and break them both. NOW A SERIES OF ONE-SHOTS!
1. Unthinkable 2

Another glass was hurriedly drained, its contents burning its way down his throat, and yet he still did not feel better. He doubted he ever would as he thought of last night's events. Oliver had tried to get John to leave Team Arrow.

* * *

Oliver was annoyed but not surprised when John fought back with his own arguments "_you would be dead __**ten times over**__ if it wasn't for me!_" John shouted in his face and began listing all the times that he had stitched him up and helped him walk or run back to the Lair to heal.

"I know and I thank you for what you have done for our cause and all your help to me but I can't have you in the field anymore John! You have Lyla now not to mention your daughter!"

That struck a nerve.

Punches were thrown, various hurtful words and phrases were said from both Oliver and John until they finally reached a standstill. Oliver pushed John towards the door and told him one final time to leave, he watched as John gathered himself and stood as tall as he could "you can't do this alone"

"I started out alone John, it wasn't that difficult" Oliver shot back "go home to your family"

John left but not before knocking over a table with some arrows on it "you're a fucking idiot!" he roared as he slammed the door behind him.

* * *

Oliver filled his glass and drained it again. Telling John that he didn't need him anymore on the team hurt him, it left a horrible taste in his mouth and an empty hole in his stomach. Oliver knew it would go away with time, and possibly more alcohol, but he was dreading what he had to do next and no amount of alcohol would help. Oliver grabbed his phone and dialled the number it had taken only a matter of days to memorize and spoke into the phone "I need you here…we need to track down another member of the Red Gang…yes…please I need you here right now…thank you"

Oliver sat and waited, he knew they would be here soon and already started to hate himself more than ever.

Felicity showed up thirty minutes later and entered the Lair, her heels making little _click click click _noises on the ground. Oliver was going to miss that.

"Hey Oliver" her happy voice hit him like a freight train yet he forced himself to return her greeting yet he did not tur to face her "if you want me to run a search you're going to need to get out of my chair" Felicity joked as Oliver stood up, it was then that she noticed the half empty bottle of alcohol next to him.

"Oliver" Felicity eyed the bottle before looking to Oliver again "is everything Okay?" she asked quietly

"It will be soon after this business is taken care of" his voice was soft yet had an edge of sorrow to it that Felicity didn't pick up on yet

"Right. Because tomorrow we need to start on finding you a job!" Felicity excitedly clapped her hands like some happy child "so that we can then get QC back"

Oliver turned to her now, he loved that she used 'we' it reminded him of her words that he was not alone and that she believed in him. Right now though his eyes were dark and portrayed the total opposite of how she made him feel – they showed darkness, anger and hurt. Oliver stepped away from the computers now before speaking "I don't need you to do that Felicity"

Felicity was getting worried now she had never seen Oliver like this "well yes you probably want to look for jobs on your own after all I don't know what you want and there are other things I could do"

"No there aren't" Oliver could feel his heart splintering

"What?" Felicity walked towards the computers and turned them on "of course there are other things I can do Oliver! Run searches, facial recognitions for the Red Gang and there is more to do now that Dig has his little girl to look after" Felicity's eyes sparkled

"No Felicity, there is nothing more for you to do" Oliver stalked toward her

"What are you talking about?" Felicity turned to him and jumped when she found that he was nearly nose to nose with her invading her personal space so much that she was forced to lean back on the desk "Oliver? What's up with you?" she slid out and away from him, Oliver's eyes never leaving hers "You're starting to scare me"

_Good _Oliver thought "There is nothing for you to do now" he repeated and then ignored the bile rising in his throat as he felt his heart splintering even more "You. Are. Done here" he motioned to the whole Lair "I don't need you anymore"

Felicity looked like se had been slapped in the face, tears welled up in her eyes but they still refused to fall as she tried to make sense of what was happening "I…what? No! Oliver you still need me!"

"I don't need you and I don't want your help anymore" for this to work Oliver decided that he was going to have to try harder, he reached for a sledge hammer over by the medical bay and walked back to the computers. Oliver watched as Felicity's eye grew wide in disbelief as he raised it high and then brought it down on the computer screen shattering it into pieces.  
Felicity's scream echoed throughout the Lair as he smashed one screen after the other "OLIVER?! _STOP PLEASE STOP_! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?"

Oliver ignored her as the last screen smashed to the ground at his feet, the ground littered with varying sizes of the screens, Felicity was panting like she had run a marathon, her knees were shaking from the shock so much that she had to grab her chair to keep from falling "Oliver, what are you doing?"

"You don't have a reason to come back" Oliver put the hammer down on the desk and looked as Felicity _still _tried to hold herself together "leave" he pointed harshly to the door

"No" she shook her head "whatever this is" she gestured to Oliver "I told you that you are not alone and I'm here for you and so is Digg and Roy! We'll help you Oliver" she started to stop closer to the table avoiding the broken screens and bent down to where all the hard drives were "now we need some new screens!"

Oliver smacked the drives out of her hands and with his hammer he smashed them too "OLIVER STOP!" He knew that all of their passed work was on them and if they were gone then Felicity would have no excuse to come back. Felicity slowly stood up still holding a broken hard drive in her hands "Why are you doing this Oliver? What did I do?" Tears started to fall as Oliver simply stared back at her with his cold eyes "if it was something I did, Oliver, I'm so sorry I…I only want to help you"

Oliver hated himself right now but this was necessary, he was doing this to keep her safe, one final blow and he knew she would leave him. Oliver grabbed her by the arms and held her close, using his body and height to intimidate her and his voice to drive everything home "You aren't listening to me" his voice now rose into a dangerous roar "FELICITY! I DON'T NEED YOU! I DON'T WANT YOUR HELP!" He started shaking her roughly digging his hands into her so hard he knew she would have bruises "LEAVE! LEAVE NOW! I NEVER WANT TO SEE YOU AGAIN!" Oliver stopped shaking her, Felicity was crying now, tears fell from her eyes as she looked up at Oliver

"N-n-no Oliver. I don't accept that"

_How is she still fighting this?! _"Felicity" Oliver closed his eyes and then pushed Felicity to the ground "**I WON'T ASK YOU AGAIN!**" he watched as Felicity stood up again her body language telling him that she was terrified right now. Oliver hated himself more than ever but that light in her eyes, that light that saved him, made him see that there were better things in life was still there. Her love. Oliver hated seeing it even after what he had just done, he needed to extinguish it.

Oliver came forward and gripped her tightly again "O-O-Oliver…?" her words were cut short

"I don't love you" Oliver saw the light getting smaller and smaller "now GET OUT!"

Felicity started to sob now, uncontrollable shakes and sobs racked through her body as Oliver pushed her away, the exact opposite of what he wanted to do, and watched her walk towards the door. One last time, she turned and looked at Oliver silently asking, begging for him to tell her what was wrong but he just stood there.  
When Felicity shut the door Oliver collapsed to the ground in a heap. His heart finally breaking into a million pieces. He hated himself for breaking her, he broke her and he had no idea how she would pull herself back together, she would he hoped.

Everything he had done, getting John and Felicity to leave the Team, was for the best. They had been hurt because of him and now that he was alone everything would be better. Now the only one he had to worry about was himself. This was the way it started and it was the way it was meant to be.

**A/N: Wow. I have had this in my head all night and I had to get it out. I was up until 3:00AM writing this down and even now I still don't think it's perfect but I still like it all the same.  
As usual, Oliver is being his stubborn self in getting John to leave – I thought all he needed to do was mention his family and he would leave.  
Felicity was different. She had her computer and things but she also loved him, it would be harder for him to get her to leave. He had to break her trust and love in him.**

**This didn't turn out as dark as I wanted it but in my head this is heartbreaking. I hope you guys like it and I'm wondering if I should continue on? I think I could write at least two more chapters to go with this. What do you think?**

**Read and review.**


	2. Caught

**This 'story' has now become a string of one-shots where I can put my ideas and watch them grow. I will be putting 'plot-bunnies' here when I think of them and might expand them into their own stories when my imagination lets me think of the whole thing rather than just a snippet.  
I will offer explanations before each one-shot to give you an idea of what's going on.**

**This 'One-shot' is called 'Caught' and takes place in the future with Felicity and her mum having to visit again.**  
**In this scenario, Felicity and Donna never had that 'fight' in her office and the subject of love (and indirectly 'moving on') is a tough subject for them both.**

* * *

Felicity bounced happily up the stairs to her place with a bag full of groceries in one hand and her keys in the other. Felicity noticed that her keys were needed as her door was left unlocked "Did I forget to lock it again?" she asked herself as she left herself in and put the groceries on the table.

The blonde called out for her mother and asked if she could help unpack and also what she wanted for dinner "Mum?" Felicity called out again and looked suspiciously down her small hall way to her spare bedroom when she noticed loud soft music coming from it. Felicity knew her mother loved to dance like a wild person but she never did get into those slow romantic songs, Felicity went to investigate. As she slowly made her way down the hall she could hear other noises – moaning, giggling and then laughter.

"Mum?" Felicity knocked on the door and then opened it "What did you want me to make for dinner?" she turned on the light and then wished she hadn't. A horrible sight greeted her eyes, one she hadn't seen since she was too little to understand. Her mother naked and with her back to the door straddling a man. A strangled yelp escaped her lips and alerted her mother that Felicity was there, the movement caused Felicity to see just who was underneath her mother: Lance.

Donna tried to explain but Felicity was racing down the hall and slamming the door shut behind her, ripping open her car door and speeding away down the street. Tears blurred her vision. Her heart was pounding harshly in her chest and air just couldn't quite make it all the way into her lungs. Felicity didn't care she just drove and drove until it became too much, she used her phone GPS to guide her to the beach and headed there.  
The salty air seemed to cleanse her emotions but not enough to actually calm her down. Felicity stopped the car and got out hurriedly and stood there with her feet buried in the sand.

Felicity wanted to talk to someone.

At first, her mind went straight to Oliver and she dialled his number but before she could hit 'call' she paused and thought about her actions. Oliver was the obvious choice, he would most likely gather the whole team together and that included Laurel – Felicity liked her but she didn't want to see her right now.  
Diggle would most likely do the same thing regardless of her telling him not to. What about Roy? Were her and Roy close enough to talk about this? She liked to think so but she didn't think Roy would be. So that left one person, no matter how stupid it might be she found the number and pressed 'call'.

"Barry?" Felicity hated the fact that she couldn't hide the hurt in her voice

_Felicity? What's wrong? Are you alright?_ Barry had always been a good friend and she knew he would be there for her

"I just…I really need you right now, how fast can you get here?" Felicity felt tears running down her cheeks again as Barry asked her location and promised to be there as soon as he could.

* * *

True to his word, Barry raced up to Starling City and was at the beach in ten minutes "Are you okay?" he asked as Felicity ran along the sand and jumped into his arms "what's wrong?"

Felicity tried to explain but her words were mixed with sobs and tears and Barry had a hard time understanding her, he told her that whatever happened would be alright and brought her into his arms again. They sat down together on a seat near her car and watched the waves for a while, the sea air ruffling their hair and making them sit closer to keep warm.

"I'm sorry" Felicity said with her head on his shoulder "I shouldn't have called you"

"You _know_ you can call me if anything goes wrong!" Barry said alarmingly and hugged her close "now tell me what happened" he smiled kindly

"Well…I came home with the food for tonight, my mum is back in town, and I wanted to know what she wanted for dinner" Barry listened and nodded along as Felicity explained "and I heard music coming from the spare room…I thought it was normal because my mum loves dancing and clubbing so I didn't think anything of it" Felicity felt a shudder run through her body "then I actually listened to the music and it wasn't like anything she would normally listen to…I went to see what was up and I…I saw" Barry held her tighter as Felicity got to the difficult part "she wasn't…exactly alone"

Barry raised his eyebrows and nodded when he understood her meaning and why that must have been awkward for her. Unfortunately for Barry, he had never been in that situation before so he didn't know how to respond, all he could do was listen to her and hold her as she cried.

Apparently, Felicity's dad had left them when Felicity was young. Donna had taken care of things as much as she could but she wasn't the greatest mother. This caused Felicity to grow up quickly and help out with everything: cooking, cleaning, and sorting the bills and taxes and stuff. Donna and Felicity were a great team and for a while they got on Okay, they didn't need a man to bring home the money with Donna working 60 hour weeks and, when the time came for it, Felicity getting a job at her local Big Belly Burger. Together they were perfect.

Felicity understood that when she went off to collage that her mother would get lonely, and men would take an interest in Donna but they never stayed for more than a few days. As far as Felicity knew, no man had stayed long enough to…play between the sheets. Felicity shuddered as the image of Donna and Lance flashed before her eyes and huddled closer to Barry.

"It's completely normal you know" Barry tried to be supportive "your mum getting lonely and finding comfort in…Lance. Sex is normal"

"_I know that!_" Felicity said angrily

"Then why are you mad?" Barry asked

"Because she shouldn't need him! For years we got on well enough and didn't need a man to help us! Hasn't my dad taught her anything!? Lance will leave us just like dad did!" Felicity didn't realize she had been nearly yelling when she finished her little rant and actually looked at Barry who had scooted away when she started flinging her hands about wildly. Felicity apologized and Barry moved closer again.

Barry went on to explain that maybe Donna had been alone long enough had had finally found love again, it just happened to be someone she knew and sort of worked with. He didn't know if any of this was making her feel better but he kept talking and watching the waves, trying to make Felicity feel better and when he thought that didn't work he talked about random stuff in Central City. More time went on and he wondered why Felicity was being so quiet and looked down to see that she was fast asleep on his shoulder, Barry knew that she was exhausted emotionally and smiled at her before taking out his phone.

_Barry? _Oliver's voice answered

"Hey Oliver, where are you right now?" Barry asked quickly holding Felicity close as she snuggled deeper into his shoulder and nearly fell into his lap

_In the lair, why? Is something wrong? _

"I'm in Starling right now, I have Felicity with me. I think she might need you"

_What do you mean? Is she alright? Where are you I'll come and get her _Barry knew that Oliver was now rushing around trying to put on his Arrow suit while still being on the phone

"You mean you don't know…? Look, Felicity is hurt and exhausted right now, I'll just run her to the lair and fill you in when I get there" Barry hug up the phone and looked around at Felicity's car, taking her car would be the smart thing to do but Oliver might not be able to wait that long. Hoisting Felicity into his arms protectively, Barry left the beach and ran for the lair, deciding that Oliver could use the time Barry would take driving back to talk to Felicity.

* * *

Barry burst in to the lair and placed Felicity gently down on Oliver's bed and covered her with a blanket "Is she alright?" Oliver immediately went to her side and started looking her over

"She just had a little bit of a scare, she's been crying and she's exhausted. Let her sleep and she'll tell you when she wakes up, I think. I need to go get her car, be back in a flash" Barry smiled and raced out of the basement leaving a very concerned Oliver sitting on the floor holding Felicity's hand in his bed.

**A/N: Sadly, this is where this little one-shot ended but I like how it turned out. It's been in my head for ages! Let me know what you think. More one shots to come!**


End file.
